Burgers containing horse DNA have been discovered at a second major plant in Ireland, the country’s agriculture department said on Monday, again pointing the finger at Poland as the country of origin for the raw materials.
Food companies such as Tesco and Burger King last month found that beef products supplied by an Irish firm contained horse DNA, a scandal that has hit retailers with a wave of bad publicity and left Ireland’s 2 billion euro (US$2.7 billion) beef industry reeling.
Results of tests on a Polish meat ingredient at Ireland’s Rangeland Foods, a supplier of frozen burgers to restaurants, caterers and pubs including local fast food chain Supermac’s, contained 75 per cent horse DNA, the agriculture department said in a statement.
“This isn’t a huge surprise, it’s another depressing saga that has put Irish food in the headlines for all the wrong reasons,” Irish Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney told national broadcaster RTE.
“It’s not a surprise to me because this is the same product that has been going into Silvercrest,” he said, referring to the plant run by Ireland’s most powerful beef baron Larry Goodman, the first whose burgers were found to contain horsemeat.
Coveney’s department said Rangeland has suspended production pending the outcome of an investigation and the company has indicated that none of the products, which were imported through a meat trader based in Ireland, had entered the food chain.
